


a birthday to remember

by bugheadotp



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Bughead Secret Santa, F/M, Fluff, even though it's janurary 15th, jughead's birthday, lots of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-15
Updated: 2018-01-15
Packaged: 2019-03-05 05:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,825
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13381398
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bugheadotp/pseuds/bugheadotp
Summary: au: jughead's 18th birthdayWhen your first day finished and he came out of school, he begged me to take him to your house to play. In the truck, all he talked about was you and for a four-year-old, he knew a lot of words to describe you. That night when I was tucking him into bed, he said ‘One day, I’m gonna marry her.’





	a birthday to remember

**Author's Note:**

> this is a really really late fic for betts-and-jug.tumblr.com. 
> 
> thank you to jandjsalmon for being an awesome beta!
> 
> slight a/u because jughead's relationship with his mom is fine, the whole serpent thing doesn't exist and everything in riverdale is fine

“I don’t understand how you can be so cheery so early in the morning, Betty,” FP yawned as opened to the trailer door wider to let her in.

 

“It’s an exciting day Mr. Jones, and thank you again for agreeing to help me. I know you’d probably rather be sleeping,” Betty said as she unpacked food from the brown grocery bag she’d been carrying. “It’s not every day your son turns eighteen.”

 

“God, where did the time go?” he sighed. “It seems like only yesterday you, Jughead and Archie would play in Fred’s backyard and piss Alice off with the mess you’d make in her kitchen.”

 

Betty smiled at the memories, “Yeah, much simpler times.” She reached into the cupboard above her to retrieve the carton of eggs and cracked all six eggs into a bowl. “Can you heat a pan up please Mr. Jones?”

 

“You know it’s FP, Betty.” She nodded bashfully and FP moved to the stove and turned the dial on the right to a medium heat. The blonde also handed him a frying pan from the clean dishes next to the sink, which he placed on the back burner of the stove..

 

Betty continued to whisk the eggs, then moved onto making a pancake mixture. FP made a pot of coffee before sitting at the small table, knowing that she’d rather not have him in the way. He smiled at the thought of his son. FP was always proud of him, even when he wasn’t around that much, knowing that Jughead wasn’t following in his footsteps had made him a better person already.

 

“Do you kids have plans today?”

 

“We’re going to Pop’s where Veronica, Archie and Kevin are meeting us. Then the Bijou this evening and then to my house. I told my mom that Jug doesn’t really like his birthday but she was insisting that he _had_ to do something on his eighteenth, so she’s baked him a cake. You’re still  okay to come right?”

 

“Of course, Alice has been texting me all week. I think she thinks I’m going to forget or something,” FP sighed as he got up to refill his coffee cup.

 

“Yeah, she does that a lot. I’ve had three texts from her this morning already.”

 

FP watched Betty move around the kitchen like it was her own. It wasn’t an unusual sight. Ever since Jughead had first asked her out, Betty had slowly started to add her own touch to the trailer.

 

It started with her own body wash on the small shelf in the shower, and a very sleepy FP not realizing he used it until he was popping bread in the toaster and Jughead had asked why he smelled like strawberries.  

 

A month later he’d returned to his trailer, after a long day at a construction site, and was greeted by the smell of freshly baked cookies. FP knew that he didn’t have anything in his kitchen cupboards that would assist in the baking of said cookies and walked into the kitchen to see new mixing bowls stacked on the counter and Jughead who was washing up a bowl. Betty was using a smaller bowl to mix icing and insisted that he need not pay her for any of the newly bought things.

 

Betty had a printed chore chart for housework stuck on the fridge, color-coded and laminated, that had the three of them alternating between washing up, laundry and vacuuming. Jughead had started to learn to cook, basic things like rice and pasta, to accompany whatever feast Betty was making alongside him. They’d work together effortlessly every time.

 

FP smiled at all of the memories, his son was lucky to have Betty in his life.

 

He glanced around the living room, noting the wrapped box next to the TV stand. “Can I ask what you got him? Or is that something private?”

 

“Not at all.” Betty moved the pancake she’d just made onto the stack of others and, after turning the heat to low on the stove moved to sit opposite FP with a glass of orange juice. “It’s sort of like a memory box of us, from things I found when mom was cleaning out the garage. It has some pictures of us that I didn’t even know existed, the ticket stubs from our first date, the first article we co-wrote for the Blue and Gold, things like that.”

 

“Wow, and all I got him was a voucher for Pop’s.” The silence grew between them once again, neither knowing how to continue the conversation from there. Betty got up to resume making pancakes when FP two of the photos on the fridge caught his eye. They were taken simultaneously, on the first day of Pre-K. One of Betty and Jughead, the small blonde’s arms wrapped tightly around his son and the other of them smiling brightly at each other. “Did you know the first day he met you, he told me he wanted to marry you?”

 

Betty turned around, a shocked look on her face, “What?”

 

He indicated for her to sit back down, which she did, pouring them both another glass of orange juice (FP limited himself to two cups of coffee a day.) “The first day you met, your mom, Fred, and I had met up beforehand so that you’d all become acquainted with each other before school. We’d all arranged to meet in the park, Fred was running late but you and your mom were already there, sitting on one of the benches. As we were walking up to you, Jug tapped my leg and said you were the prettiest girl he’d ever seen.”

 

Betty’s face turned a light pink and she gulped down the remainder of juice in her glass. “How do you remember that?”

 

“It’s one of those things that stick, I guess. When your first day finished and he came out of school, he begged me to take him to your house to play. In the truck, all he talked about was you and for a four-year-old, he knew a lot of words to describe you. That night when I was tucking him into bed, he said _‘One day, I’m gonna marry her.’_

 

“When he was seven, Gladys and I forgot his birthday, but you didn’t and had brought in a cupcake for him. He kept the candle too and before he went to bed, he came and told me that you wore your special dress when you brought it him, the one you only wore to Church at Easter and Christmas.”

 

“I remember that. I spent days convincing my mom to let me wear it even though it was about fifty degrees out. Juggie deserved me looking my best.”

 

“Betty, my boy’s been in love with you for as long as I can remember. You could have worn the worst thing you can think of and he’d still think the world of you,” FP explained with a laugh.

 

“For the record, I still want to marry you,” Jughead said, leaning on the short counter between the kitchen and the living room.

 

FP looked between them then got up, “I’ll leave you both to talk. Call me when you’re ready to eat?” He walked towards his room, pausing to give Jughead a hug, “Happy birthday, son.”

 

“Thanks, dad,” he responded then greeted Betty with a kiss to her forehead and sat where his father had just vacated.

 

Before Betty could say anything, Jughead opened his hand to reveal a ring. Her eyes widened as she gazed from his hand, back up to his face, “Juggie, I-”

 

“Betty, I do want to marry you someday. You told me that in your life plan, you wanted to get married by 25 and no sooner, so think of this as a promise ring. We’ll carry on with life, moving to New York, going to college, getting jobs, we’ll do all of that and this,” he held the ring between his thumb and index finger, “this means we’ll do it all together. Through everything that’ll inevitably happen, we will stick together. If you want to that is.”

 

“Of course I want to Juggie, I love you.” She closed the gap between them, kissing him.

 

Breaking the kiss he took Betty’s left hand and said, “I read that promise rings go on the ring finger of the left hand.”

 

Betty nodded and wiggled her finger slightly to help ease the ring past the knuckle. She wrapped her arms around Jughead’s neck and sat on his lap, hugging him tightly.

 

“Is it safe to come out kids?” FP yelled from his room.

 

The blonde pressed a kiss to her boyfriend’s lips before telling FP he could return. Betty resumed cooking, plating up what was ready to be consumed.

~

After finishing breakfast,  FP gave Jughead his gift then left for work. Betty had finished drying the dishes, with Jughead’s help, when she remembered the present in the living room. She took his hand and led him to the couch and handed him the box.

 

“I hope you like it, Juggie,” she said pressing a kiss to his cheek then taking a seat next to him.

 

Jughead opened the box, “Betts, what?”

 

“It’s a box of our memories Juggie, everything from the plastic toy you gave me when we first met to the pictures you had developed of us yesterday.” Betty said as Jughead went through everything in the box, telling each other the stories associated.

~

Later that night after the annual tradition of an ‘inner circle’ lunch at Pop’s, followed by Betty and Jughead’s date night at the Bijou, they arrived back at the Cooper’s house to Alice, Hal and Polly (as well as her twins - who were only just awake) in the kitchen, Alice holding a cake with an 18 candle lit. They all sang happy birthday and Polly’s twins, Junior and Emily, hugged their uncle before being taken to bed. Alice and Hal ate a slice with them before retiring to bed.

 

Whilst Betty was getting ready for bed, Jughead was sitting at her dressing table, and opened up his email on her laptop to watch a video he’d received from his sister and mom earlier in the day, blowing party horns and singing happy birthday. He typed back a reply about his day, using several exclamation points about his proposal/lifelong promise to Betty, and that the following week when JB’s in town, he’s going to spoil her rotten with the voucher for Pop’s.

 

Betty walked back into the room, wearing grey pajama shorts and a white tank top, kissed him on the cheek then settled into bed. He logged off and joined her, wrapping his arm around her waist and entangled their fingers, lying gently on her stomach. She turned her head back and glanced up at his blue eyes, kissing him again. “Love you, Juggie.”

 

“Love you too, Betts,” he replied bringing her closer to him.

**Author's Note:**

> thoughts?


End file.
